Newswire

Distressed Chicago Development Back Underway

Chicago tourists will finally get a new view at the beginning of the city’s renowned architectural boat tour. The unfinished building sitting at 111 West Wacker Drive—the starting point for the tour—is back under construction.

The tower, which sat untouched for four years after funding was cut off during the Great Recession, was originally designed to be the United States’ first Shangri-La Hotel, The Architect’s Newspaper’s Christopher Bentley says. Now developer Related Midwest is taking over the abandoned project and turning it into luxury rental apartments.

The building’s newest design is garnering mixed reviews. Originally planned to reach 90 stories, it will now only reach 52, Curbed Chicago reports. And it will no longer have a cantilever, which seems to be the biggest disappointment for many. But Chicagoans can take solace in the fact that there is an end date in sight for the construction of the hulking eyesore, as so many have come to refer to it. Come 2014, architectural boat-tour guides will have a new tower to talk about.